Carrying a Hoe to Cultivate

“Host, you should plant some winter gourds.”  The weather was particularly good today, seeing Xia Yi eating melon seeds doing nothing, 179 was worried.

“I don’t want to move.” Xia Yi spit out some melon seed husk onto a small dish. He no longer wanted to leave this world. More precisely speaking, he did not want to leave Gu Wen Zhu, and so he did not have a whole lot of interest in the missions. His parents had died in his home world anyway, he had not been contacting his relatives a lot, all of his friends were settled. Did it matter if he went back or not?

“And although there are no computers in this world, I have you, 179.” Xia Yi was praising 179 for the first time. If this was under normal circumstances, 179 would be over the moon, however, he could not make himself feel great right now.

“It is never too late to start doing something, the important thing is to not stop after starting to do that.”

“You fail only when you stop trying.”

“No seeds sowed, no harvest; no hard work, no success; no hardship, no honour; no drab, no glam.”

“All rights reserved, please cite the source.”

179 began to read out some chicken soup for the soul content.

With Xia Yi continuing to eat melon seeds and even holding the bowl in his arms, 179 began to play music in his mind.

“And I, I gotta be strong, just keep pushing on, ’cause, there’s always gonna be…”

Xia Yi did not budge, he even started to tap along with the music.

“I should not have agreed with this marriage.” 179 felt painful when he saw how much of a slouch Xia Yi had become, “The softness of hometown is the mound of a hero. I should have known, you did not stand a chance with a fox such as Gu Wen Zhu.”

“Host, you have to think ahead, the technical system has gone travelling, this bug is not likely to be fixed for a while. What if you transmigrate to the cultivation world again? Isn’t it wiser to complete a few more missions in order to have a brighter future?” 179 kept persuading, trying to talk him into working with logic.

Right, completing missions is still good for life in the cultivation world. For example, I only needed to plant some potatoes to complete the mission of finding the leader, if I had to find clues in the other world, I might find nothing at all.

Xia Yi sluggishly stopped eating the melon seeds, thinking, “These rubbish systems are not to be relied on, I can only depend on myself when I am transmigrated there. It is better for me to complete as many missions as I can, just to be safe.”

“Okay, let’s listen to ninie and go plant some winter gourds.” Following his own train of thoughts, Xia Yi brushed off the husks on him and stood up.

Xia Yi was now a great farmer, he sowed all the winter gourds seeds within a day.

179 finally stopped worrying and felt safe again.

Two months went by, the winter gourds sprouted and began to climb onto the stand.

Xia Yi was diffident and scared that people would doubt the growing of winter gourds in this weather, he never expected to see Zheng GouEr crouching with a bowl in his hand and said, “Your radishes are growing really nicely.”

It appeared that 179 was good at deceiving the eyes of the others.

Gu Wen Zhu was not home today, he went out during midnight with Li Zhu and the others to hunt the boars, they claimed that they wanted to cure some ham so that they could have one more dish on the marriage day.

Ever since the proposal, he had been busy putting things together for the marriage.

The two painted the walls white together. All doors were painted. Gu Wen Zhu had sewn a new bed for Kirin. And Gu Wen Zhu had not been farming since the proposal, he had bought some wood and piled them in the yard. He had been making furniture every day as if he was a woodsmith.

In view of the situation that Gu Wen Zhu was measuring this and that among the pile of wood, Xia Yi tried to talk him out of it, “Let’s find a woodsmith, it’s so much work to do by yourself.”

“No, I have to make our own bed.” Gu Wen Zhu put a piece of wood in front of himself and narrowed his eyes to look at it, “I have enough experiences anyways, I am making the bed for our child.”

Child? Ho ho.

He realised that words had slipped out, so he immediately tried saving it and said to Xia Yi who was with a cold expression, “I am talking about Kirin having puppies.”

Puppies do not sleep in bed. Kirin has his own bed. It is a male and cannot have a child anyways. 

Kirin was gnawing on bones and heard his name, he looked up without a clue.

Whatever, he loves to make the furniture himself, having talents is a good thing. And he is already a tailor, having one more talent does not make much difference.

Now that Gu Wen Zhu was away hunting and not home, Xia Yi was not picky with eating, he heated up a big bowl of leftovers, gulping down all quickly, and brought Kirin out to have a walk.

Kirin was now a big and powerful dog, its fur was shiny and dark black, a bell was tied on his neck. All these made it stand out among all the dogs in the village. Just by its look, you could tell that he was from a rich family, handsome, and with taste. The she-dogs in the village, DaHua, XiaoBai, had been fighting for it every day.

He followed the road from the village and walked slowly to the stream. Some women and gers were washing clothes along it.

“How do they have so much clothes to wash, why do they stay here every day not leaving?” Xia Yi was afraid of these people, every time he passed by in front of them, he would question if they were talking about him or joking about him.

“They are talking about Gu Wen Zhu.” 179 said.

“How many times have I told you? Don’t listen. Don’t. Everything they say can’t be trusted, they make things up, your IQ will go down if you listen to them.” Xia Yi frowned and reproached 179, “What are they saying about him?”

“They said that Gu Wen Zhu was sewing dowry for you every day and going blind because of this. Last time you went to old Zhang’s store to buy all the candles was because he could not see. And they said that he was carrying a needle on his finger to sew from time to time in the farmland–”

“That’s a ring, okay? That is not a needle.” Xia Yi was unhappy.

“Yeah, they are really chatty, they love to talk behind others, but they never introspect. There was once that Lady Li’s husband was back from the city and came back riding old Zhang’s carriage with the woman from Zheng GouEr’s house. What a coincidence? They went to the city on the same day and they came back together in old Zhang’s carriage?” 179 lowered his voice and said in a mysterious tone, “And there was another time, the Chan’s ger…”

Xia Yi: …

He started to go home after the walk, Xia Yi was planning to make dinner. Gu Wen Zhu must have been tired hunting all day long, so he planned to boil a pot of water for him to bathe when he was back.

“Let’s go, Kirin. Your father is making dinner for your mother.”

Kirin wanted to play and ruffed, but it still obediently went home with him together.

Just when Xia Yi finished washing the rice and chopping the veggies, he heard some noise from the front door, someone was coming. Xia Yi stood in the kitchen and greeted that person merrily, “Zhu, you are back.”

Gu Wen Zhu did not respond, the yard fell silent.

Xia Yi raised his voice and repeated, “Zhu, you are back.”

There was still no response, then he heard Kirin’s hostile growling.

Strangers? Xia Yi put the vegetables into a bowl and walked out.

Once he was out, he saw a thin middle-aged man standing in the yard, his blue gown was embroidered with gold patterns, he had a wooden stick in his hand. He was staring at Kirin with sparkly eyes and a gaunt face.

And there was a handsome fellow standing behind him, with the same clothes on him, his body was slender, with an aloof look on his face.

A vivid red spot was between his brows, as eye-catching as the moon sign on Bao Gong’s forehead. This familiar uniform and these cultivator qualities let Xia Yi know who they were just by looking at them.

There are two of them?

Kirin had lowered its body, showing his teeth, his back legs were ready to pounce, Xia Yi hurriedly shouted, “Don’t bite, Kirin, they are one of us.”

Upon hearing that, Kirin halted, holding its jumping position, still growling towards that guy.

Xia Yi stepped forward, patting its head, “Son, it’s alright, go play.” Then it walked back to its bed and lied down unwillingly, having its eye fixed on that guy.

The older one was not bothered by Kirin’s fierceness, contrarily, he complimented it with glittering eyes, “It really is the mythical beast, how magnificent.”

Xia Yi understood all these, Qi Shan Sect, dog persons.

That handsome fellow was not impressed, he only observed the small yard of this farmer’s house, looking at the dustpan and the baskets, the hoes in the corner, his expression showed a hint of disgust.

The man withdrew the stick in his hand after talking, he brushed his dustless sleeves, then he turned to Xia Yi, “Xia, my friend, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am the Elder of TianXuan of the Qi Shan Sect, Meng Wan Zi. I am also the elder fellow apprentice of Tian Ji and TianQuan.” He saw Xia Yi’s confused look and added, “Tian Ji Liu SiQian, TianQuan ChengMing.” He moved slightly to let Xia Yi see the young man beside him, “This is my apprentice that I teach myself, Qi Zhou.”

Qi Zhou nodded towards Xia Yi and folded his hands to greet him elegantly.

“Oh, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.” Xia Yi greeted them in return.

It seems that this transmigration involved a master and his apprentice.

As Meng Wan Zi had mentioned Cheng Ming, Xia Yi asked with concern, “Is he back? Anything weird about him?”

He was worried that his craziness would grow due to the frequent transmigrations and would get more sick, calling everyone the leader.

“Nothing wrong with him.” Meng Wan Zi smiled. “It was very kind of you, my friend.”

“Fine then.” Maybe he became normal again when he transmigrated back due to the difference in the atmospheres of the two worlds.

“It’s just that he gets mad whenever people give him a bowl of soup. No one knows why.”